Fighting Fire with Fire: Can Traditional Native American Burning Practices Help Reduce Devastating Wildfires and Increase Soil Carbon Storage?

Executive Summary

We will test the hypotheses that traditional Native American burning practices may help suppress wildfires and increase soil carbon storage, using geochemical, molecular, and microbiological analysis of soils and lake sediments. If our hypotheses are correct, they present powerful arguments for reversing a hundred years of entrenched fire-suppression policies and supporting Native American efforts to put fire back on the landscape.